City of Westminster

Committee: / Date: / Title of Report:
Westminster Schools Forum / 03 December 2012 / Provision of Full-Time nursery places and sustainability funding to nursery schools in Westminster
Classification:
/ Information paper of:

For General Release

/

Tri-Borough Head of Finance – Education and Commissioning

Wards involved /
All
Policy context
Financial Summary
  1. Background
  2. The number of full-time (FT) nursery places in Westminster was reviewed last year, with the result being that the same number of FT places were retained, but the way in which the provision is allocated has been revised across all nursery and primary schools with nursery classes.
  3. Westminster currently has 657 funded FT pupils across nursery and primary schools being taken up. These cost £1.3m more than if only 15 hours per week was offered.
  4. There will be a reduction of funding coming in via the DSG in 2013/14 and 2014/15 and thus areas where expenditure can be reduced need to be identified.
  1. The Drivers for Change
  2. The number of pupils that are used to calculate the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for Westminster has up to now included a top-up for 3 year olds to 90% of the 3 year old population. This has brought in an additional £1.1m to Westminster.

2.2We have now been informed that this additional funding will cease, definitely by 2014/15, but possibly in 2013/14.

2.3In the most recent DSG baseline information, which we received on the 23rd of October, the full £1.1m was removed from the baseline (proportionately across the three blocks) and we were told that we would only be notified about any transitional protection that will be provided when we receive the final settlement, which could be as late as the 19th of December.

2.4In their papers on the Schools Funding reform the DfE mentioned that if there is transitional protection that this will be either 50% in 2013/14 or that the top-up level would be reduced to 85% of the population for 2013/14. It seems most likely that we will lose 50% of the funding in 2013/14 and the remaining 50% in 2014/15 however there is still a risk that we could lose all of the funding in 13/14.

2.2The costs per hour of educating 3 and 4 year olds in the existing nursery school structures is high. It is possible that these costs could be reduced by exploring alternative management arrangements and other ways in which costs could be shared across the settings or with other schools or providers.

  1. The Current Position

3.1The current position is that there are currently 642 full-time places offered in primary schools and 80 in nursery schools, of the places in primary schools 577 are currently filled and being funded (i.e. total FT places taken up across primary and nursery of 657). The full time places are funded for 27.5 hrs per week (38 weeks per year) and the hourly rate for a ft place differs from that for a pt place.

3.2The analysis attached compares the cost of the places currently being of providing the full 27.5 hrs per week against what it would cost for providing 15hrs at the part-time rate.

3.3The cost of the additional 12.5 hrs is thus £1,319,000. If we were to reduce the funding available for FT places by £1.1m then we would be able to fund only 109 places (a reduction of 548 against the 657 that are currently funded).

3.4The 4 nursery schools between them receive £1,211,914 of sustainability lump-sum funding; this should also form part of any review that takes place. This sustainability funding contributes to a high unit cost of providing education in the Nursery Schools.

3.5Although full-time places have been allocated to settings, these settings are free to allocate them to families as they see fit. The local authority has not implemented a set of criteria that parents should meet in order to qualify for a free ft place.

  1. Next Steps
  2. We recommend that a review of the full time places on offer in Westminster be undertaken as a possible means to address the anticipated funding shortfall
  3. We recommend that a review of the levels of funding that are given to nursery schools be undertaken, in particular the sustainability funding, as a possible means to address the anticipated funding shortfall. This could include a review of the costs of running the nursery schools, looking at ways in which these could be reduced by cost sharing across schools, federation arrangements and other means.
  1. Recommendations
  2. The forum is asked to give its agreement to a review of the full time places on offer in Westminster and the sustainability funding that is allocated to Nursery Schools in order to address the anticipated funding shortfall;
  3. Schools Forum is asked to nominate representatives to be on a working group to assist in the abovementioned review;
  4. Consideration of the other points raised in the report.
  1. Appendices

Appendix A:Places and Funding (Nursery and Primary Schools)

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